CHINA FACTOIDSDid you know that...

China is among 25 countries where capital punishment is still not only written in the criminal code, but also regularly enforced. Read more

China's expenditure on scientific research and development (R&D) reached a record high in 2017, ranking second in the world in the process.

According to a joint report published by the National Bureau of Statistics, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Finance, China's R&D investments totalled 1.75tn yuan (US$276bn) last year - up 11.6 percent year-on-year, Chinese newspaper Beijing Business Today reported on Wednesday.

R&D intensity, the ratio of R&D expenditure compared to gross domestic product (GDP), hit a record high of 2.12 percent - a rise of 0.01 percentage points compared to 2016. By way of comparison, the European Union's ratio in 2016 was 2.03 percent (PDF).

Expenditure on elementary research hit 92bn yuan (US$14.5bn) - an increase of 11.8 percent year on year - while Chinese companies and enterprises invested the most in R&D, with 1.37tn yuan (US$216bn) recorded - up 13.1 percent year on year.

Government-affiliated research institutes and universities spent 241.8bn yuan (US$38bn) and 112.8bn yuan (US$17.6bn) respectively, up 7 and 5.2 percent from a year earlier.

China has been ramping up its R&D investment in recent years and is now the second-largest country in terms of global R&D spending after the United States. It also accounts for 20 percent of total world R&D expenditure, said Brussels-based economic think tank Bruegel.

However, “major scientific research in China mainly consists of imitation. Original innovations are relatively few and weak, and high-level talent is still scarce,” according to Ning Jizhe, director of the National Bureau of Statistics. “Innovation should be the first priority of national development,” he concluded.